Bahador (tank)
The Bahador (بهادر; meaning "valiant" or "champion") is a Tabi'atstani main battle tank developed in the 1980s and 1990s. It was designed as a response to modern Western MBTs such as the M1 Abrams and Leopard 2. Development Initial studies in the development of a new indigenous main battle tank began in the early 1980s. A full-size mock up was completed in 1983 and a working prototype was produced in 1984 for trials. Further refinements were made in the next year, but the collapse of the Soviet bloc and the end of the Cold War meant that a large number of cheap tanks were put on the market during the 1990s, halting the project. In 1992 and 1993 two more prototypes were built, but lukewarm support meant that it was not until 1997 that the project was announced. However, at this point the 1991 Gulf War had displayed the weaknesses of older Soviet tank models, providing impetus for the project to be completed, and a small test batch of Bahador tanks was produced in 1999 to be accepted into service for testing. Unfortunately, the Second Tabi'atstani Civil War delayed full-scale production even further, and it was not until 2005 that mass production of the Bahador began. Design The Bahador is primarily based on the Soviet Object 490 and Object 490A Buntar (“Rebel”) designs, although it has significant differences with the two and has its own distinctive features, also taking some design cues from the German Leopard 2. The tank has a chassis originally based off of the T-64’s except with an extra roadwheel. It is 9.87 m long (hull length of 7.71 m), 3.4 m in width, 2.43 m in height, and weighs 45.36 tonnes. The Bahador is powered by a two-stroke diesel engine developing 1,500 hp, giving it a top speed of 75 km/h on roads and 50 km/h offroad. It also has a hydropneumatic suspension like the Swedish Stridsvagn 103, allowing it to duck behind cover and increasing effective gun elevation and depression. This suspension system allows the tank to reduce its height from 2,400 mm to 1,600 mm. The vehicle is operated by a crew of three; commander, gunner, and driver. The external frontal plate provides protection against light AT infantry weapons like the RPG series of weapons. Behind it is the main layered armour placed just in front of the main crew compartment. Ammunition is carried in a turret bustle with blow-out panels on the top and in the bottom of the bustle. The Bahador can also be fitted with the Shtora electro-optical active protection system, helping to disrupt antitank guided missiles, laser rangefinders, and target designators that might target the tank. Furthermore, the interior is equipped with spall liners to reduce fragments if the armour is penetrated, and additional wedge-shaped appliqué armour can be added to the turret, with this giving the Bahador an appearance very similar to the Leopard 2A5. The Bahador's main gun is a 125 mm 2A46 smoothbore gun with 45 rounds of ammunition. In addition, it also has a coaxial 7.62 mm machine gun and a remote-controlled turret mounted 12.7 mm heavy machine gun for air defence. The fire control system has multichannel sights with TV and thermal imaging channels, with information from all channels being collected by a computer which generates a picture for the crew based on all the data collected. As such, the FCS has good performance in bad weather, smoke, dusty environments, and under active jamming from enemy forces. It is also able to locate and remember the positions of enemy targets, displaying them to the crew in easy-to-read images. Additionally, the on board computer gives information about the location of the tank and the status of different systems. The commander has a panoramic sight and the ability to aim and fire main gun from his station, whilst the gunner has a day sight to the left of the gun and a thermal imager to the right of the main cannon. Service history Models *'Bahador' - Initial production variant **'Bahador K' - Commander's version of the Bahador, with additional communication and navigation equipment *'Bahador M' - Modernised version of Bahador with additional wedge-shaped appliqué armour on the turret and a turret bustle for extra ammunition Operators *'Tabi'atstan' **Tabi'atstani Revolutionary Army Ground Force See also *Defence industry of Tabi'atstan Category:Tabi'atstan Category:Military of Tabi'atstan